Streetsblog Capitol Hill

Maybe you commute by train, or maybe you've switched from driving to biking. But your stuff is still traveling the country by diesel truck.

Nearly a quarter of transportation-related greenhouse gas emissions come from freight. The movement of goods from port of entry to a store near you throws enough particulate pollution into the air to shorten the lives of 21,000 people each year, according to the Clean Air Task Force.

The freight sector is lumbering under inefficient and outdated systems that cause pollution, public health problems, safety hazards, and delivery delays. There’s never been a coordinated national approach to solving these problems. And with no deliberate strategy, the default approach is often to build more highways.

As Stephen Davis of Transportation for America writes:

If a port is congested or wants to expand, there’s little available federal money to spend directly on rail or any other mode. Your choices are highways or highways. When a state or port does spend to improve operations, there is no accountability to make sure they’re actually reducing port/freight congestion, moving freight faster, or reducing air pollution in surrounding communities.

Enter the FREIGHT Act. (That’s the Focusing Resources, Economic Investment and Guidance to Help Transportation Act of 2010, with true Capitol Hill acronym panache.) The FREIGHT Act was introduced in the Senate toward the end of July and in the House a week later.

The bill focuses on areas known as "connectors," said Kathryn Phillips of the Environmental Defense Fund. “All the literature and studies say it’s the connector areas, the hubs, where you have the most congestion and environmental impacts.” The bill calls for troubleshooting at these bottlenecks, where products are transferred “from boat to truck to another truck to rail” and everything gets bogged down. Trucks get stuck in traffic; trains sit on the tracks; ships idle at port.

Communities near international ports pay the price. In Riverside, California, traffic gets tied up at 26 at-grade rail crossings 128 times a day when trains pass. Add to that the noise and pollution nearby neighborhoods must contend with.

Read more...

Transportation is a public health issue. As profiled in the recently released report from the Trust for America's Health, "F as in Fat," obesity rates continue to rise across the nation, increasing the risk of serious health problems like diabetes and hypertension. To solve the obesity epidemic, the data suggest, we need to rethink our dependence on the automobile. 

"F as in Fat" breaks out obesity numbers state by state. After glancing at their map, it seemed like transit and pedestrian-friendly states were doing better than the national average. To get more precise, we decided to compare adult obesity rates, as gathered in the report, to commuting statistics in the U.S. Census. You can download our spreadsheet here. 

The result is the scatterplot shown above, which clearly shows that states where more people drive to work have higher obesity rates. Caveats abound -- correlation isn't causation and state-level data can obscure important patterns visible only through a closer microscope -- but the result is provocative. The two outliers are D.C. and New York State; they imply that while a large shift away from driving can make a big difference, it can't solve the obesity crisis on its own.

Although "F as in Fat" doesn't analyze transportation behavior itself, the authors agree that moving away from a reliance on the automobile is a critical component in curbing obesity. Their recommendations include: passing legislation supporting non-motorized transportation, such as an expansion of the Safe Routes to School program or a national complete streets bill; building more safe pedestrian space and bike paths to encourage active transport; and supporting mixed-use, walkable, and transit-oriented development.

The nation's transportation planning process fails to account for more than $200 billion per year in "hidden health costs" imposed by traffic and air pollution, according to a new report from the American Public Health Association (APHA) that maps the nexus between infrastructure and health care.

The APHA's report (available for download here) echoes many of the policy recommendations issued by the Centers for Disease Control last month: stronger incentives to expand bicycle and pedestrian networks, as well as more frequent measurement of the health impacts of new transport projects.

But the APHA, a trade association representing public health workers, went further than the government by adding up the estimated costs imposed by the absence of any mandatory evaluation of the health consequences of transportation decisions.

Citing U.S. DOT and American Automobile Association studies, respectively, the APHA pegged the annual price of congested roads at between $50 billion and $80 billion, with the health toll of traffic crashes -- including the treatment of fatalities, the resulting court costs, and lost wages -- reaching $180 billion per year.

The majority of those bills are paid indirectly by the transportation system users they affect, not factored in advance into local planning, as the APHA writes:

Read more...

The White House's inter-agency task force on childhood obesity, developed under the stewardship of First Lady Michelle Obama, today released a 124-page report recommending dozens of policy shifts in health care, community development, and transportation that it estimates can bring down obesity rates among kids by 5 percent over the next 20 years.

During the February launch of the task force, Mrs. Obama noted the public health benefits of promoting biking and walking among U.S. kids, but today's report goes into far more detail about the link between non-motorized transportation, local land use, and children's rate of physical exercise. Among the task force's recommendations are an addition of "complete streets" design rules to the next long-term federal transportation bill and expanding the Safe Routes to School (SRtS) program to include high schools.

"Children’s ability to be physically active in their community depends on whether the community is safe and walkable, with good sidewalks and reasonable distances between destinations," the report states in a section entitled 'The Built Environment' that got an early plug from Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood.

A chart featured in the White House report, viewable above, mirrors the assessment of a recent SRtS release that found ample opportunities for families to transition their children from school commutes via auto to trips by foot or bicycle.

The task force also encourages local governments to conduct "Health Impact Assessments," or HIAs, before building new developments. The HIA concept, similar to environmental reviews of federally funded transport projects that are currently mandated by law, would evaluate the effect of construction and land-use decisions on the physical activity of community residents.

The first lady's group also took a notably holistic approach to the effect of neighborhood quality on children's health. In a lengthy section on the findings of a recent socioeconomic study published in the journal Health Affairs, today's report states:

Read more...

The connection between transportation and public health has slowly edged into the mainstream since Streetsblog Capitol Hill began covering it last year, first through a billion-dollar grant program added to Congress' sprawling health care bill and now in a Centers for Disease Control (CDC) brief that connects existing U.S. infrastructure with chronic disease, obesity, and premature deaths.

The CDC brief, quietly released late last month, offers seven recommendations aimed at making public health a greater priority for transportation policymakers:

• Pass road safety laws, such as those requiring child safety harnesses and prohibiting texting behind the wheel;
• Increase funding for air quality improvement projects and clean diesel projects that limit vehicle emissions;
• Encourage more transit-oriented development and transit expansion;
  
• Require streetscapes to be designed for bicyclists and pedestrians as well as drivers, the principle known as "complete streets";
• Support local planning and zoning rules that promote mixed-use construction in denser neighborhoods;
• Revamp road design practices to minimize auto speeds and increase pedestrian and bicyclist safety;
• Increase data collection and research about the transportation-health relationship
  

In addition, the CDC outlines the grim consequences that can be expected from the nation's transportation status quo: Read more...

Environmental groups have long called for a national "fix-it-first" standard to apply to new transportation projects, requiring states to focus on repair of existing infrastructure before constructing new lane miles. The approach has caught on in several state capitals, but not in Washington -- except when it comes to water infrastructure.

As the Washington Post reports today, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) quietly released a new policy last month that tells state officials to use their $3 billion-plus in annual federal water grants to shore up creaky pipes before serving new housing developments on the outer edges of urban areas.

From the Post's piece:

The new guidance arguably arrives five years too late -- after a home building boom that swallowed up vast swaths of land. But building will eventually resume, and EPA officials say the leverage of the federal funding ... could coax states toward a more sustainable form of development. With so many cities contending with aging water pipes and sewer lines, officials say, it makes most sense to address those needs first.

The EPA's announcement was met with criticism from the home building industry and state water supervisors who do not believe their mandate should include preventing unsustainable growth.

But amid multiple ominous signs about the health of the nation's water systems -- a burst pipe that left millions of Bostonians without usable faucet water, and a long-term deficit of about $500 billion in state water funds -- a show of effectiveness for "fix-it-first" rules could strengthen the case for applying them to transportation projects in the future.

In Washington, "grassroots lobbying" is more often associated with industry-funded issue campaigns than ground-up local advocacy. But residents of Detroit's industrial southwest neighborhoods took the term back to its roots on Friday, getting a personal visit from Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) officials after a groundswell of complaints about decaying air quality.

From the Detroit Free Press' report:

Environmental Protection Agency officials watched intently Friday as a computer that measures air pollution on the spot showed spikes around industrial plants in southwest Detroit. ...

Next to the plants in the 48217 ZIP code and nearby areas are whole neighborhoods boxed in by oil recycling plants, asphalt makers, a steel plant, a stinky composting yard, a salt factory and an expanding oil refinery.

"This is what we live with," said [Jayne] Mounce, who lives near Marathon's oil refinery and petroleum terminals.

This week, Mounce said she had taken her own air samples with the help of national environmental monitoring group Global Community Monitor and found lead-laden dust, which could come from a steel mill nearby. A few months ago, similar sampling found a dangerous chemical in the air -- methyl ethyl ketone, a gas that can cause numbness, tremors and gait problems.

The story notes that EPA officials have "fewer than 50 air monitors" in the entire state of Michigan, where the industrial base has shrunk in recent years but remains a prime economic mover -- and generator of air pollution. Nonetheless, the Detroit residents' plea for stronger air quality standards is an unusual sight compared with the more common practice of localities seeking more lax rules or more time to comply with EPA pollution limits.

Methyl ethyl ketone, the gas found in local air sampling, is commonly found in manufacturing plant emissions as well as specific products such as industrial glue and the exhaust of cars and trucks, according to the Centers for Disease Control's toxic substances registry. In 2005 it was removed from the list of hazardous air pollutants regulated by the EPA under the Clean Air Act after a federal appeals court ruling that endorsed the move.

After 14 months of drama, deal-making, and declarations of its demise, the health care legislation envisioned by President Obama and congressional Democrats finally cleared its biggest hurdle last night, with the House approving the Senate-passed measure on a 219-212 vote.

The process isn't quite finished yet -- the Senate still must take up a series of tweaks to its original bill under the filibuster-proof reconciliation framework for debate -- but the meat of the upper chamber's health proposal is set to become law by week's end.

Once that occurs, a new pool of federal "Community Transformation" grants would be established, with local governments and nonprofit groups eligible for a share of the funding. As Streetsblog Capitol Hill noted back in November, the grants would go towards projects that support public health, including "activities to prevent chronic diseases" and "the infrastructure to support active living."

In practice, that could result in new funding available for bike-ped improvements or programs that encourage safe transportation for young students, such as Safe Routes to School.

The Senate bill also recognizes transportation's role in public health by giving the U.S. DOT a seat on a new National Prevention, Health Promotion and Public Health Council that would coordinate federal wellness policy.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today named Brooklyn's Gowanus Canal a Superfund site, putting the waterway on the list of the nation's most polluted waste areas and paving the way for a years-long cleanup process that could upend city officals' plans to redevelop the neighborhood.

In a statement on the Superfund designation, the EPA noted that contamination was found along the entire length of the 1.8-mile canal, which runs through the Carroll Gardens and Red Hook areas of Brooklyn. Among the toxic materials found in the Gowanus' sediment were polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, pesticides, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and heavy metals.

“After conducting our own evaluations and consulting extensively with the many people who have expressed interest in the future of the Gowanus Canal and the surrounding area, we have determined that a Superfund designation is the best path to a cleanup of this heavily contaminated and long neglected urban waterway,” EPA regional administrator Judith Enck said in a statement.

“We plan to continue our work with the same spirit of inclusion and involvement that has already been demonstrated, and thank everyone for their focus on this pollution problem.”

The New York Times reported last year that New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg was opposing the prospect of  Superfund status for the canal, proposing instead to use federal and local funds for an alternative Gowanus cleanup plan that would not put new development and rezoning at risk.

The EPA's decision effectively puts federal officials in charge of restoring the canal to health, a task that can take more than a decade. Of the 1,620 local sites added to the EPA's Superfund roster over the past three decades, 341 sites have been removed following successful cleanups.

Two op-eds published last spring in the Gotham Gazette offer a point-counterpoint debate on what the Gowanus designation might mean for local residents. The EPA also announced a public meeting on the Gowanus site, to be held this Thursday, March 4th, from 7 pm to 9 pm at P.S. 58, located at 330 Smith Street in Brooklyn.

The connection between transportation reform -- an emphasis on land use that makes biking and walking as viable as auto travel for routine trips -- and health reform is one that's not often made, despite the best efforts of the Obama administration.

But a team of researchers led by Lawrence Frank of the University of British Columbia took a particularly novel approach to the relationship between transport and health for a study recently published in the journal Preventive Medicine. For their observations, the group eschewed Chicago, New York, Portland, or other highly walkable cities in favor of sprawl-heavy Atlanta.

Frank, Steve Winkelman of D.C.'s Center for Clean Air Policy, and Michael Greenwald of the Seattle-based firm Urban Design 4 Health used data from Atlanta's SMARTRAQ survey to map the amount of calories burned by various blends of walking, transit, and car use. That calorie-burning factor was dubbed the "energy index."

The "energy index" of Atlantans increased significantly as their neighborhoods grew denser, according to the study, and the number of calories they used on motorized travel shrank in denser, more walkable areas.

But interestingly enough, the study's density factor only examined residential properties -- and in neighborhoods where mixed-use development grew, bringing housing closer to commercial property, the energy used for driving and walking decreased, leaving Atlantans' "energy index" unaffected.

"This result likely demonstrates that the energy required to travel in a very mixed land use pattern is lower for both walking and driving — with no real impact on the relationship between the two modes," the study's authors wrote.

The authors also noted the significance of a documented link between dense residential development and public health in a city known more for its grinding traffic jams and struggling transit:

Read more...